Before the arrival of Maori from Taranaki in the 1820s, the Wellington area was populated primarily by people of Kurahaupo waka descent, including Ngai Tara, Rangitane, Muaupoko, Ngati Apa and Ngati Ira. The Waitangi Tribunal referred to these as ‘Whatonga-descent peoples’ since all claimed descent from Whatonga, an early Maori explorer, who named the harbour, Te Whanganui a Tara, for his son Tara. The people from the Taranaki region were often given the common name of ‘Ngati Awa’ (and later Te Atiawa) by outsiders, but they comprised a number of tribes. These ‘incoming tribes’ included Ngati Toa (also known as Ngati Toa Rangatira), Ngati Rangatahi, Te Atiawa, Ngati Tama, Ngati Mutunga, Taranaki, and Ngati Ruanui.
By the 1820s, Europeans were arriving at Port Nicholson (as it came to be known, after John Nicholson, the Sydney harbourmaster). In May 1839 the New Zealand Company advertised in London 990 lots of Port Nicholson land for sale. The first immigrants began arriving in January 1840. In 1865 when Wellington became the capital city, the population was just 4,900. But Wellington’s economic base was significantly improved by the relocation of the capital and by 1881 the resident population had reached 20,000. A building boom accompanied the population increase, with the total number of dwellings in the city doubling in the last 20 years of the nineteenth century. More than 70 per cent of this growth took place in central Wellington, leaving some areas overcrowded.
Trams in Wellington
Prior to the introduction of trams, residents were limited in the distance they could live from their place of work – there were horse-drawn cabs and buses but these were too expensive for most people. Steam trams began operating in 1878, causing the horse-drawn bus and cab owners to lower their fares. However, the steam trams frightened horses and people, frequently breached their operating regulations, and with economic depression in the 1880s they were replaced by horse-drawn trams in 1882.
At this time, the tram lines were extended to Courtenay Place, a move directly responsible for making it a transport hub for the city. There was a strong feeling that providing accessible transport to outlying areas would alleviate the overcrowding in the central city. In 1900 the tramways system was taken over by the Wellington City Council at a cost of nearly £20,000. Work began in late 1902 on converting the system to run electric trams and in 1904 they began running. By 1911 there were an estimated 22 million passenger rides a year, producing weekly revenues of £3,000 (more than $400,000 in today’s terms).
Tram Shelter, Oriental Bay
Tram Shelter (Former) was built at the terminus of the Oriental Bay tram line, which ran along Oriental Bay from Courtenay Place. A storm in August 1904 caused part of Oriental Bay road to collapse, which delayed the opening of the tram service until 22 September 1904.
The shelter was designed by the Wellington City Engineer of the time, William Hobbard Morton, and was built by William McColl in 1904. Morton designed a standard plan that was used for a number of shelters in 1904. The plan notes that McColl was to build four shelters (although one has been crossed out): Aro Street Quarry, Oriental Bay Quarry, and Botanical Gardens. Another notation says that similar sheds were erected at Mansfield Street, Courtenay Place, Davis Street and Thorndon Quay. After Morton’s death in 1923, the Evening Post reported: ‘the tramway service, a vast amount of roading over hills whose difficult contours have been conquered so as to permit transport over easy grades… are all to Mr Morton’s credit’.
The Oriental Bay tram shelter was located in front of a former quarry that had provided fill for harbour reclamation. The tram route provided a popular excursion to the seaside for Wellingtonians, as well as transporting residents living in Oriental Bay and Roseneath. The Oriental Bay Kiosk (tea rooms and hall), opened in 1913 behind the shelter, and provided refreshments for some years as well as a place for meetings and dances. This was built on the former quarry site, about which the newspaper noted: ‘residents can well remember the unsightly blot it was in a locality which is certainly destined to be one of the most beautiful quarters of the city’. The kiosk was known as the Oriental Bay Private Hotel and Tea Kiosk between 1917 and 1920, when it became the Oriental Private Hotel (1921–1944/5), YWCA Hostel 1944/5–1957 and in 1959 was the Labour Department Hostel. It was demolished about 1981.
The shelter was built with a dormer in the roof, which formerly housed a clock. The front of the shelter originally had four sets of paired turned posts forming three openings. Between the two openings on either side of the central opening were semi-circular arches with trellis above a solid panel. This style can still be seen in a replica bus shelter in Glenmore Street. The trellis and solid panel has gone and there is now one turned post in place of the original double set, making the shelter more open. It already had one post and no trellis in 1976 when drawn by Grant Tilly for the ‘cityscapes’ newspaper series. There were two carved finials at each end of the roof ridge, with open timber work between them on a hipped roof. The Australasian Automatic Weighing Machine Company installed a weighing machine in front of the shelter in 1906, which was transferred to Willis St in 1924.
The Oriental Bay tram line had a few tragedies. In September 1913 a tram conductor died while on the Oriental Bay line (apparently falling from the tram). In May 1926 two trams collided head-on on the Oriental Bay route around Clyde Quay; the trams were extensively damaged but no one was seriously injured.
In 1925 when Oriental Parade was to be bitumened, consideration was given to replacing the trams with a bus service, and therefore not needing to re-lay the tram tracks. ‘Confounded’ wrote a letter to the editor of the Evening Post saying ‘Is it not a fact that in all leading cities of the world the motor bus is gaining a greater hold? …Is there one resident in Oriental Bay who wants the noisy trams continued, and to be saddled with the rates on the new track…’ Nevertheless, the Council adopted the Tramways Manager’s report, committing itself to re-laying the tracks at an estimated cost of £11,500.
Three tram sheds were built in Wellington for storing and servicing the trams – at Newtown, Thorndon and Kilbirnie. By March 1930 the number of passengers carried annually had reached 46,581,456 – about 150,000 journeys every day. Numbers declined to 34.8 million in 1933–4 due to the economic depression, but climbed again in 1939–40, reaching 48.2 million with the boost provided by the Centennial Exhibition. The Second World War provided another boost to 62.8 million in 1943–44. However, during the war it was difficult to maintain the tram system and after the war the city council decided to trial trolley buses.
Tram services to Wadestown and Tinakori Road ceased in 1949 and the Oriental Bay line was the next to go, with the last tram running in May 1950. Photos show the crowds on the last Oriental Bay ride and also the tram tracks being removed from Oriental Parade. The Evening Post reported:
‘Scheduled to leave the terminus at 10:24pm, the tram was kept for 20 minutes or more while the crowd enthusiastically cheered… An hilarious crowd packed the tram and hung on at all points…and two dogs who managed to get on board added their barking to the din.’
The Dominion added that ‘one of the happiest persons on the tram’ was Mr William Burgess of Majoribanks Street, who was present at the inaugural trip when the tram service to Oriental Bay first began in 1904. The last tram in Wellington (and in New Zealand) ran in 1964, travelling from Thorndon to Wellington Zoo in Newtown.
The service was replaced first by a trolley bus service and in 1987 by diesel buses. The Oriental Parade shelter is no longer used as a bus stop – a more modern one is now located about 50 metres away to the west. In 2010, the Wellington City Council commissioned a Conservation Plan from Ian Bowman, and in 2012 installed an interpretation panel beside Tram Shelter (Former) and an ‘Oriental Bay’ sign on the front.
